Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Sector Strategic Plan for Liberia.

This Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Sector Strategic Plan is a nationwide sectoral document aiming at highlighting the critical importance of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to form a platform from which Liberia’s Vision 2030 can be possible. It should also be considered as an implementation tool of both the Integrated Water Resources Management and the Water Supply and Sanitation Policies. The WASH implementation will lead to a number of cross-cutting issues, such as (i) poverty reduction, productivity and economic gains; (ii) education and gender equity benefits; and (iii) health benefits.
The overall goal of the document for the sector is to increase access to safe water supply and sanitation and improve hygiene practices, thereby contributing to improved human welfare, development and Liberia’s long term sustainable growth. This goal shall be achieved through 4 main strategic objectives, as follows (1) establish and strengthen institutional capacity to manage, expand and sustain Liberia’s WASH services; (2) increase equitable access to environmentally friendly and sustainable water and sanitation services and promote hygiene behavior change at scale; (3) establish information management systems and strengthen monitoring, data collection, communication and sector engagement; and (4) improve sector financing and financing mechanisms.
To make agriculture more productive and sustainable, the Plan suggests a fund-raise for the establishment of a national hydro-geological information system.
Providing access to water and sanitation is a necessary precondition to reducing poverty, including rural areas. Basic services should be provided for all and they regard adequate safe water (25 liters/person/day), and sanitation (access to piped sewerage or on-site sanitation systems).
In order to enable more inclusive agricultural and food systems, the document focuses on WASH in schools, indicating as main measures to be implemented (i) establishing governance systems for the management and O&M of the WASH facilities; (ii) accessible water supply with good drainage and provision of safe water for drinking; (iii) gender and child sensitive sanitation; (iv) hygiene education and promotion as part of the curriculum; and (v) availability of hygienic and cleanable kitchen and dining area when necessary.
As for the Governance, (i) it will established a separate body, the Water Supply and Sanitation Commission, to regulate the tariffs; (ii) to reduce the high non revenue water, zonal meters will be installed in all zones of the cities to easily detect leakages or theft; finally (iii) the Policy calls for a regulatory body that would regulate the cost and minimum consumption per capital that will be used to determine the design capacity of new facilities.